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2 This report was prepared by A. Paul Bradley Jr., president, The Bradley Group Inc., and Cheryl D. Blanco, vice president, Special Projects. It was edited by Alan Richard, director of Communications. It was designed by Lety Jones, senior designer and production manager.

3 A Message from the SREB President College students success links directly to region s economic future State policy-makers and the public across the nation now recognize the severe consequences of low high school graduation rates and the need to raise those graduation rates significantly. But relatively few state leaders and Americans realize that average college-completion rates fall well below high school graduation rates. While colleges and universities must find ways to greatly increase their graduation rates, we also need to raise the numbers of people with twoand four-year college degrees and career certificates. Most new jobs now require some level of postsecondary education. We can argue about exactly how many more adults with degrees are needed nationwide, but the facts show that the United States is falling behind other developed countries in degree completion. Many policymakers agree that degree completion needs to as much as double in order to keep the nation economically competitive. Western Kentucky University Increasing the numbers of persons with degrees and certificates in the coming years will require increasing the rates at which students who typically enroll in college actually graduate. However, to raise the numbers substantially, we will need to see that many more students, younger and older alike, enter college and succeed. The pipeline of students working toward college degrees and career certificates needs to grow and its leaks need urgent repair. Boosting degree completion requires a range of strategies: Improving students academic readiness and motivation for college. Smoother college-transfer programs in each state. Greater institutional priority and effectiveness in helping students complete degrees. More access to college and an emphasis on affordability, even during stressful economic times. Drawing more adults into postsecondary education and helping them complete degrees and certificates. State education policies and funding that directly, forcefully prompt improvements on campuses and across postsecondary systems. SREB will be issuing a full set of recommendations this summer that will help state leaders and policymakers make progress in these areas. The following report speaks directly to one of these components what individual colleges and universities can and should do to help more students succeed. It outlines specific actions that we believe have attained best practice status that nearly every institution should follow.

4 As states and institutions work to make degree completion their first priority in postsecondary education, they need to do so while also increasing access to college. Higher college graduation rates will not mean anything if these rates result from fewer students entering in the first place. Increased degree and certificate completion depends on two crucial actions. First, institutions must increase the rate at which current students graduate. Second, to reach the much higher number of degrees that SREB states need, postsecondary education will need to enroll many additional students and then help them succeed. Both actions are essential enrolling more students in postsecondary education and pushing for higher rates of degree completion. Improving degree completion while also guaranteeing access traditionally has not been a major priority at most institutions. Making headway in degree completion will require a major cultural shift of purpose and practice on campuses, from boards of trustees to administrators, faculty and among students. The result of our work should be that more students enroll in college and that more who enroll finish degrees. Advancements in this area will pay off for generations to come. Sincerely, Dave Spence, SREB President

5 Promoting a Culture of Student Success How Colleges and Universities Are Improving Degree Completion Introduction Despite rising college enrollment, improvement in students timely completion of bachelor s degrees in the United States has stalled. Student success rates are alarmingly low and have not changed significantly in many years: Fewer than one-third of degree-seeking, full-time freshmen in public four-year institutions graduate in four years. Most students who enter college as first-time, full-time freshmen take at least six years to earn a bachelor s degree and only 55 percent graduate in that time span. Clearly, the nation s success in attracting more students to college has not been matched by success in graduating them. In fact, research shows that students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds or with low SAT/ACT scores are even less likely to complete bachelor s degrees than their classmates. Some colleges and universities, however, are helping more students complete degrees while also providing a high-quality education. These institutions often serve a comparatively high percentage of students from low-income families and students with average-or-below scores on standardized achievement tests. Yet their six-year graduation rates are near the national average for all students. These colleges and universities are the focus of this report. Delta State University, Mississippi The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) examined many strategies that public institutions are using to help more students earn bachelor s degrees, with particular attention to students in regional colleges and universities who often face academic and/or economic disadvantages. The findings of this report draw most heavily from interviews with college administrators, faculty, staff and students to identify institutional actions that contribute most to the colleges relatively high graduation rates. This report also reflects current research on student retention and degree completion. Recent studies offer valuable insights into the factors that influence student success and how institutions are performing relative to the graduation rates of different groups of students. In Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter, George Kuh and others cite research showing that the best predictors of student success are academic preparation and motivation. While these characteristics are common among many college students, a high percentage of students on campuses across the nation do not enter college with strong academic preparation or high levels of motivation. Nonetheless, simply by admitting these students, postsecondary institutions acknowledge their deficiencies and commit to helping them succeed.

6 Institutional actions can make a significant difference in student retention and degree completion. At Education Sector, Kevin Carey s research during the past decade identifies several institutions with higher graduation rates than their peers. In Choosing to Improve: Voices from Colleges and Universities with Better Graduation Rates, he features some of these institutions and their policies, practices and decisions. The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education studied 10 colleges and universities with many students from low-income families and higher-than-average graduation rates. It found that those institutions emphasized academic planning and intrusive advising, academic reviews for students in trouble, special programs, a dedicated faculty, financial aid and an explicit retention policy. Research at ACT Inc. by Veronica Lotkowski and others also found that non-academic factors such as institutional commitment, social support and social involvement had a positive relationship to student retention. As Kuh and others have noted, effective leaders are a key component of success at high-performing institutions. Vincent Tinto argues that the institution s capacity to engage faculty and administrators across the campus in a collaborative effort to construct education settings, classrooms and otherwise, that actively engage students in learning is central to successful retention efforts. Students at Montclair State University, New Jersey The purpose of this report is twofold: to emphasize that institutions can increase degree completion and to give institutions and policy-makers recommendations for promoting greater student success. This report also adds to existing evidence of how institutions can help more students graduate. Specifically, this report summarizes 15 institutions successful approaches to improving graduation rates and student achievement. (See the complete methodology for the selection of the institutions on Page 14.) It recommends specific strategies that campus leaders can use. Finally, the report profiles each institution and its particular student-success initiatives. State officials, university systems and state higher education agencies also need to provide leadership in improving colleges degree-completion efforts through more effective planning, policies and procedures. State agencies and officials can emphasize retention and college completion by requiring and monitoring institutional plans to increase degree completion and by rewarding successful and improving institutions. A companion publication from SREB will examine state policies that can enhance college students opportunities to complete degrees. This series of SREB reports provides a guide for institutions and policy-makers at the state and federal level as they work to improve college-degree completion for all students raising the overall education levels for each state and the entire nation. A Graduation-Oriented Culture Most institutions of public higher education exist to educate students. Students, their families, and policymakers expect that the state s public colleges and universities will do everything possible to help students complete their degree, and college completion should be the institution s top priority. While there is no single formula that can guarantee a student will earn a bachelor s degree, institutions that successfully promote degree completion share several common strategies. The keystone of all of the institutions highlighted in this report is a campus culture that supports student success. A culture reflects the character of an organization and generally is defined as the sum total of the 2

7 values, customs, traditions and beliefs that shape how people behave. Culture cannot simply be declared or legislated it is established and maintained by people. In the institutions visited and studied by SREB, campus leaders have built strong cultures that lead more of their students than those in similar colleges and universities elsewhere to keep working on their degrees until they graduate. SREB found two important characteristics that create and define the strong cultures at these institutions: The first is attentive leadership at many institutional levels, shown by a deep commitment to student success in all communications with students and employees and in policy decisions. The second is an intense focus on the individual student, verified by sharply targeted programs and services, affinity groups, and attention to each student s needs. I. Leaders Should Build Cultures of Student Success The attentive leadership that SREB found to be pervasive at every institution in this report often includes a campus champion for student success in degree completion usually the president, but not always. Even when a clear champion exists, faculty and staff members provide other types of leadership at many levels, so that leadership for student success is everyone s job. Building and sustaining a graduation-oriented environment for students require a variety of campus leaders who define expectations for the college and consistently reinforce them. At their most effective, these leaders clarify the best practices and programs that enhance students opportunities for degree completion, and they allocate money and staff to achieve the goal of graduation. They then assess their progress and change course where necessary. Finally, they recognize all contributors faculty, department heads, administrators, students, etc. who sustain the graduation-oriented environment. All of these leadership-based activities need to occur, but no single individual or group can provide them all. Collaboration among individuals and departments also is a significant element of the culture of every institution in this report. SREB found that leadership at all levels state, system, institution, department and program contributes in crucial ways to student success. Senior and mid-level administrators are key leaders and advocates in improving graduation rates at the institutions in this report. Presidents were most often cited as champions for degree completion, ensuring that policies and procedures promote student progress, allocating and focusing resources on degree completion and student success, and prioritizing assessment of the institution s performance on such indicators. At California State University, Long Beach, President King Alexander and his predecessor, Robert Maxson, were lauded by colleagues and students for their consistent attention to student success, for example. Queens College, The City University of New York But other leaders also were mentioned in interviews as champions for student success: Vice presidents, deans and/or directors were cited as key to institutions relatively high graduation rates at every institution in this report. In fact, on more than one campus, these leaders were identified as critical to student success and in some cases were the primary campus champions. Students chances for degree completion involve their academic, social and psychological well-being, and administrators in student services, academic affairs, advisement, counseling, residence life, faculty development, the library and others play crucial roles confirming that effective leadership toward student success is a shared responsibility. SREB found in campus interviews that mid-level administrators in some cases have pioneered the development of services that promote student success or lead such services. These services include educational- 3

8 opportunity initiatives for first-generation college students and those from low-income households, programs for students with disabilities, special counseling or advising centers (e.g., for athletes, students with disabilities, international students and others) and more. Some of these administrators are vocal proponents for degree-completion efforts, and many of them are mentors and role models for students: Registrars (or comparable departments overseeing course scheduling) can be important to degree completion. If students cannot take the courses they need when they need them, it hinders timely degree completion. Typically, students especially commuter students want to cluster their classes to avoid making multiple trips to campus per day. At larger institutions, this can be a major challenge. Financial aid officers also play a critical role in degree completion, especially for students with economic challenges. Financial aid officers at the institutions in this report often work hard to prevent students from leaving for financial reasons, according to campus interviews. In addition, some institutions student aid programs provide incentives for academic progress that contribute directly to higher completion rates. Western Kentucky University (WKU) and other institutions provide angel funds to assist needy students with expenses for books and transportation, and at WKU the administration ensures that students who are behind on tuition payments find help early in the semester. At Sam Houston State University in Texas and several other institutions in this report, financial aid staffs regularly refer students to other campus offices for help with study skills, reading and writing. Inclusive, campus-wide institutional initiatives are additional strategies that leaders at the universities in this report use to increase retention and completion. Often, these initiatives are temporary, such as a team appointed to lead strategic planning or a task force charged with a mission related to improving degree completion. Such efforts often involve the entire campus and lead to long-term efforts that transform the institution s culture. They often come about because of a state initiative or with the arrival of a new campus president, such as at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Other organizational initiatives that figure prominently in student success include retention committees such as the one at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, enrollment management committees, ongoing strategic planning teams and faculty senates. Attentive leadership by these groups can help sustain efforts to improve students degree completion if the champion departs. Having additional parts of the institution involved creates a collective champion (the team or committee) or multiple champions for improving degree completion. Students at Clarion University of Pennsylvania SREB interviews also showed that effective academic departments and administrative units provide leadership for student success. Many departments at these institutions have a long-standing departmental culture of strong student engagement and an emphasis on degree completion. Signs of graduation-oriented departments include joint research projects among faculty and students, departmental tutorial centers, faculty efforts to introduce students to intellectual and cultural opportunities on and off campus, and easy student access to the faculty. At these institutions, students typically have little trouble in finding a faculty member available to help them, contributing to their success. One-stop shops are an emerging institutional approach to changing internal administrative units to meet student needs. Instead of having various administrative services scattered across campus, several institutions 4

9 house them close together, often with a single check-in desk. At a few institutions, students wait for service in comfortable, lounge-type seating where electronic message boards alert them when a support person is ready to help. One-stop shops typically include fee collection, financial aid, the registrar and the academic advisement center. Many interviewees cited student advising as especially important. At some institutions, faculty members serve as the primary advisers for students. Several institutions in this report use specialist advisers (whose primary job is to provide academic advising), especially for students first two years, to ensure students have a good start in college. A few institutions in this report engage faculty more comprehensively in student advising. Western Kentucky University created the Campus Advising Network (CAN) in response to faculty requests for additional training as academic advisers and offers a Master Advisor Certificate (MAC) to faculty. The program helps faculty become better advisers to students and focuses on student retention. Sam Houston State University, Texas Other institutions in this report have established or are creating campus-wide advisement centers to assist students during their entire time in college. Campuses with professional advisement centers visited by SREB often were described by college staff and students as excellent, and the institutions had survey data showing strong student satisfaction. At institutions with these centers, faculty advising may be ancillary and focused exclusively on academic majors. In addition to administrators, campus-wide committees, and more effective administrative units, institutional leaders need faculty, students and alumni to help create a graduation-oriented culture. Faculty members roles in attentive leadership for student success are not confined to academic departments. Faculty also play a major role individually in students degree completion at the colleges and universities in this report: They often are gifted teachers, listeners, mentors and regular participants in student activities. They serve as role models who help students define their own expectations, determine personal priorities and time allocation, assess students progress and recognize their accomplishments. These intellectual and emotional bonds strongly engage students in college work and the campus environment and are hallmarks of attentive leadership. These efforts are difficult to make part of public policy, but their importance cannot be overemphasized. They are at the heart of a graduation-oriented institution. The institutions in this report involve students in leadership roles as peer mentors, tutors, orientation leaders and resident advisers. These students are important as role models for their younger peers and serve as examples that progress and success are possible. Alumni also provide leadership and serve as role models for students, especially at institutions such as North Carolina Central and Elizabeth City State universities that historically have served minority students and have traditions of alumni participation. At these institutions, alumni seem to be everywhere serving as visiting lecturers, sponsors for off-campus activities, community service volunteers, career advisers, job providers and financial contributors. Their leadership is seen as crucial to many students success. In summary, a graduation-oriented campus requires consistent messages from leaders about high expectations for students, how to achieve these goals, and the resources that are available. Attentive leadership toward student success at the colleges in this report is not about a single charismatic leader. When one exists (and SREB encountered several in its interviews), the institution is fortunate. But without attentive leadership at all institutional levels, involving a wide range of individuals, efforts to improve degree completion may be fragmented and halting. 5

10 II. Institutions Should Support Student Needs Attentive leadership is only one campus characteristic that drives timely degree completion. When attentive leadership is combined with intentional institutional practices that promote degree completion, the result often is greater levels of student success. The colleges and universities profiled in this report have other common strengths that contribute to an institutional focus on student success: targeted programs and services, affinity groups, and other practices that meet individual students needs. Targeted Programs and Services All of the institutions in this report have specific programs that focus intently on students timely degree completion. Among the most common are First-Year Experience (FYE) programs, designed to engage incoming students in campus life early. No two FYEs in this report are the same, though many are based on the popular seminar model developed by John Gardner of the University of South Carolina. The seminars vary by number of sessions, comprehensiveness of the course content, whether student attendance is required, who teaches the course, whether students also are scheduled together in other classes, and other elements. Some institutions FYEs go well beyond the seminar. Many programs include organized social activities, visits to cultural sites or events, attendance at lectures, common summer reading assignments, and college survival training in areas such as time management and study skills. A few institutions have expanded the FYE to include transfer and adult students and even upper-division students. Decisions to expand these programs often were based on data showing student satisfaction and demand. Student activities also have a positive influence on degree completion. Colleges efforts to provide social engagement are important to keeping students in college and can vary by geographic location. Rural colleges in Wayne, Nebraska; Clarion, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Mississippi; and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, provide many student activities on their campuses. However, commuter-dominated colleges in busy urban areas such as Southern California and New York City also work to keep students on campus and connected to each other and the institution. Student services departments and administrators are key to ensuring student engagement. Commencement at Wayne State College, Nebraska Many of the institutions in this report also have programs that focus on students academic readiness for college. Many high school graduates even some with good grades are not ready for the rigor of college courses. California, Kentucky and Texas are among only a handful of states that have developed (or are instituting) statewide college-readiness policies that call for states to identify high school students who are deficient in reading, writing and mathematics in time to bolster their knowledge and skills. The goal is to reduce or eliminate the need for remedial college courses. These programs are promising, but they are few in number and too late for today s first-year college students. Ensuring that students are ready to succeed in college-level courses is an essential part of helping more students graduate. Sometimes called developmental studies, remedial college courses can be controversial. Debate continues about whether colleges should admit unqualified students. In fact, students taking remedial courses often are not fully admitted and may have only a year to pass entrance examinations. But they do attend class and require institutional resources. For the institutions in this report, all of which accept high percentages of students with average-or-below high school records and standardized achievement test scores, the numbers and percentages of students who 6

11 require developmental studies are high. In some cases, these students need developmental instruction only in one area, but some are deficient in reading, writing and math. Even so, many students at the institutions in this report have passed their developmental courses and gained admission at relatively high rates: more than 60 percent for students requiring more than one remedial course, and more than 80 percent for those who needed only one remedial course. Data also show that many of these students do well in college after admission and graduate at rates similar to those of the general student population. Clearly, these remedial programs are working better at these institutions than at many others. Why? One reason is that institutions such as the College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, monitor developmental students progress carefully and use data to guide program improvements. Also, SREB interviews revealed that most faculty and staff members at the institutions visited are passionate about the mission of developmental studies and often take students failures personally. Many of them recognize their opportunity to improve students lives and enjoy the challenge. They clearly convey their expectations for students, sometimes using written contracts that detail the responsibilities of both parties. They regularly express personal confidence in the students, strengthening students self-confidence, bolstered by the success of their predecessors. Many faculty and staff members are mentors who help students with issues beyond the curriculum. Many students at the institutions in this report passed their developmental courses and gained admission at relatively high rates. Another type of targeted service is the tutorial center. Every institution in this report provides students with extensive tutorial services. The typical tutorial center has at least one professional coordinator, many student peer tutors and sometimes other professional staff, even faculty. The centers serve all students, though academic departments at some institutions provide their own tutors, often in math or English. In a typical semester, the percentage of the student body served by the tutorial center is high and approaches the majority at some of the universities. Surveys uniformly indicate widespread student satisfaction. Institution-wide student retention and success centers and related services are a relatively new approach to improving degree completion. In Mississippi, Delta State University s proposed Academic Advisement Center will bundle targeted services and initiatives to strengthen coordination and collaboration among the many individuals and programs that contribute to student success. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a central part of efforts to improve degree completion at several institutions in this report. First introduced at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, SI usually is applied to courses that historically have high failure rates. Commonly, a graduate student or selected upper-division student sits in on lectures or class activities and then leads a review session for small groups of students prior to the next class session. Research shows that students who participate in SI regularly perform better than their classmates who do not. Some of the institutions in this report offer SI for large percentages of their courses. Highly effective orientation programs at the institutions visited by SREB often are a targeted strategy for helping new college students succeed. When orientation programs are carefully and comprehensively developed by institutions, they can be valuable sources of information for new students, can guide them through administrative tasks and can build their enthusiasm for college. All of the institutions in this report have spring and/or summer orientation sessions, rather than just before each semester. Colleges approaches to orientation vary, but they typically cover testing and placement; an introduction to the institutions people, systems, processes and services; and inspiration and socialization. Students in orientation sessions often share home and campus addresses to make contact prior to the start of classes. Later, orientation can include a long weekend just before classes begin, to reinforce the earlier sessions, further develop friendships among students, confirm registration, help students acclimate to living on campus, and introduce them to support staff and services. For many of the institutions, FYE is a natural extension of orientation. 7

12 Several institutions in this report have centers dedicated to faculty development another key to high degree-completion rates. Typically, the institutions require new faculty orientation. At several institutions, a senior faculty member mentors each new faculty member for a year. Some universities including North Carolina Central also have required annual or semi-annual faculty workshops, and many hold additional, optional workshops on topics such as helping students improve their writing and boosting faculty members advisement skills. Affinity Groups All colleges and universities have clusters of students who share some common likenesses, interests or goals. Affinity groups can help institutions pay close attention to individuals and student groups and promote greater student engagement in the institution. Some institutions arbitrarily create an affinity group (e.g., by randomly choosing students for an FYE seminar or for the same group of academic classes). In other cases, students join together for athletics, by international origin, or through programs for honors or at-risk students. Residence halls often provide a venue for affinity groups, sometimes congregating a group in a single floor or building. Some institutions house together athletes, musicians, international students, students with the same major and others. Others assign students to residence halls more randomly but create affinity groups through workshops on succeeding in college, discussions, and competitions with other residence halls, all led by students trained as resident advisers. Some affinity groups are called learning communities (LCs) and are viewed by many in higher education as effective in improving degree completion. LCs have existed for centuries (though not with that label), with roots in the traditional British university model that features self-contained residential colleges. Murray State University in Kentucky began a residential model several years ago, with good results. Most learning communities are curricular, allowing students to be actively engaged in a sustained academic relationship with other students and faculty, often for longer than one course. Murray State University, Kentucky LCs can promote academic success and student engagement by emphasizing student-to-student and student-to-faculty interactions. Some LCs also provide intensive mentoring and advising for students. Many LCs try to enhance the educational experience, not just students mastery of course content. LCs can use block scheduling to keep the same students together through many courses, and some also provide social and/or cultural activities for students. Some LCs group students with similar interests or backgrounds together, while others create community among a diverse mix of students through common activities. Research reports and student surveys show that students in effective LCs often report having comfort or safety in an otherwise large, sometimes intimidating campus setting. LCs lend themselves well to interdisciplinary teaching and planning by faculty and administrators. They have helped to build supportive environments for students at the colleges in this report. Some LCs are part of campus FYE programs and others focus on honors students. Several institution officials see honors programs as LCs that are important for student retention and degree completion because they provide enriched college experiences for academically talented students who might otherwise attend other universities. LCs can also serve at-risk students, scienceoriented students, women and average students. Larger universities, in particular, may benefit from the sense of community that LCs can provide. 8

13 Programs for at-risk students are an important type of affinity group and often take the form of learning communities. These programs have different names (e.g., EOP for Educational Opportunity Programs, SEEK for Search for Education Elevation and Knowledge, and TRIO SSS for Student Support Services) but otherwise are similar. Generally funded in part by federal or state governments or state college systems, they provide financial aid and intensive support such as mentoring, intrusive advisement, professional and peer tutoring, personal counseling, special classes and social events, and field trips. Students at Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina Students at institutions in this report noted consistently that these programs provide a home for them where they can find caring adults and fellow students. Some of the institutions in this report show first-year retention and six-year degree completion rates for these students that are similar to those for the overall student body. Meeting Individual Needs The college experience needs to be as academically and administratively hassle-free as possible so that students stay on track. Institutions need to provide individualized services to help them. One such service a learning contract is used by several institutions highlighted in this report. Student-advisement offices, tutorial centers and programs for at-risk students or struggling students (e.g., those on early alert or probation) often use contracts that define the responsibilities of the student and the institution (represented by an adviser) toward specific academic- or graduation-related goals. For example, a student striving to leave academic probation may promise to meet with an adviser weekly for academic counseling, show the adviser all graded papers and tests, receive tutoring, provide notice when adding or dropping a course, and seek help in deciding on future course electives. The adviser, in turn, may answer questions, suggest better study habits, and provide direct help or recommend other support services. The contracts provide students with a clear plan that can lead to a degree and remind them that someone on campus is paying attention and can be summoned for help. Student advisement is clearly important to student success. Furthermore, institutions that use intrusive advising often identify this assertive approach as especially valuable to retention and graduation. Intrusive advisement usually requires students to check with faculty and other advisers regularly. It also helps protect students from errors in course registration, and it can boost degree completion by assuring that students take only the courses they need as they work toward graduation. All of the institutions in this report have at least some full-time professional advisers. In most cases, they are in central advisement offices that work with all first-time students. At most of the institutions visited by SREB, all students who have not yet officially chosen a major must seek advisement from a central source. After students choose a major, they work with specific faculty members in their academic departments. However, there are some significant variations to this approach: Queens College, The City University of New York, developed a successful advising model in response to concerns about inconsistent advisement. It features a central Academic Advising Center, open seven days and three nights a week, which provides a full range of services from entry to exit. At Western Illinois University, almost all advising is done by full-time professional advisers, first in a central office for students who have not declared a major and then by specialists in each academic area. Northwest Missouri State University has only one advisement professional, who spends nearly all of his time meeting with and coaching faculty on advising skills. 9

14 California State University, Stanislaus, uses faculty as the primary advisers but also includes the Academic Wellness Program, an umbrella academic advisement program that supplements faculty advising and features five stages of advising checkpoints, each linking students with an adviser to monitor, encourage, inform and assist them in making good choices. While the approaches are different, students at each institution in this report consistently indicate on institutional assessments a high degree of satisfaction with advisement. Faculty and administrators also generally express satisfaction with advisement efforts. Most of the institutions monitor the effectiveness of their advisement programs and regularly consider improvements. Early alerts help colleges identify students who are struggling, usually by halfway through a semester but sometimes earlier. They are most commonly used for first-year students. Faculty members often send alerts to the campus advisement center, but some institutions such as Wayne State College in Nebraska encourage anyone to make a referral: faculty, administrators, athletics coaches, resident advisers even fellow students. Most advisement centers then request or require students to visit and develop a success plan that may involve signed contracts. SREB s campus interviews show that many college employees and students consider early alert programs important to helping students succeed especially first-year students. The interviews found that early alerts need to happen early enough in each term to allow for effective corrective action. Course scheduling is crucial to students ability to graduate on time in today s complex institutions, which provide many different academic majors, minors and interdisciplinary programs. Scheduling and registration can require great skill, organization and robust information technology. The challenge is for all students to have the courses they need when they need them and to make them accessible. This involves not only complicated formulas based on the number of students needing each course among hundreds of courses, but also the task of securing appropriate-sized and appointed space for the classes. Some students have difficulty graduating on time because the courses they need are not available in a workable sequence. Missing only one prerequisite course can cost a student an entire year and can lead to their frustration, longer time to degree completion, or possibly dropping out. The College of Staten Island, The City University of New York Many institutions in this report have developed processes for degree audits, which can ensure that students are in the correct course sequences for their degrees. Audits traditionally have been used with college juniors, but institutions now commonly conduct them earlier by having advisers work with students to develop improvement/graduation plans. The goal is to eliminate unfortunate surprises that may have a negative effect on student success such as when students accumulate far more credits than they need or haven t chosen the right sequence, which could lead them to a dead end when a course they need isn t offered that semester. Requiring students to select a major by the end of the freshman year helps them focus on specific courses and enable the institution to provide more effective advising and monitoring services. This report opened by stressing the importance of establishing a graduation-oriented culture through leadership and meeting student needs. This approach to student success underscores the importance of personal attention for students. At every institution that SREB visited, interviewees offered inspiring explanations for their success in degree completion. Stories were legion about individuals going above and beyond expectations: faculty phoning students who skip class or providing extra help for a struggling student, or taking students to places and activities they had never experienced. Paraprofessionals such as peer mentors, residence advisers and tutors also provide help, sending a powerful message to students that their academic success is important a message that is reflected in the numbers of students completing degrees. 10

15 Summary The 15 institutions profiled in this report outperform similar institutions in admitting high percentages of students who face economic and academic challenges and graduating many of them on time. SREB s research and interviews found that these institutions have created graduation-oriented cultures that are focused strongly on student success, through attentive leadership at all levels and an array of programs, processes and policies that work in collaboration to serve students effectively and help many of them complete bachelor s degrees. SREB also found that the institutions in this report focus intently on continuous improvement, through ongoing institutional research, assessment of programs, and monitoring of data especially around students degree completion. The institutions leaders, faculty and staff rarely are complacent or satisfied. They continually look to raise their institutions performance and have employed several key approaches that contribute to their own and most importantly their students success: North Carolina Central University Focus and expectations: All levels of administration and staff at the institutions in this report focus intently on student retention and timely degree completion. Leaders board, president, senior or mid-level administrators, and faculty declare and reinforce that student retention and degree completion are the highest priorities. Student success is a core value, and every position in the institution contributes to it. Faculty and staff at all levels expect timely degree completion and understand their roles in making it happen. These high expectations are expressed openly and often by campus leaders and communicated directly to students. One president cited in this report tells first-year students every year in his convocation remarks if they are not planning to graduate, they should go someplace else. Consistency and longevity: Institutional themes and messages are carefully chosen, consistently presented and crafted to last. They are not the flavor of the month. If a president leaves (or even several presidents), attention to retention and timely degree completion continues. A student success committee can develop short-, medium- and long-term goals and then provide the leadership to achieve them. This engrains student success into the culture of the institution. Early intervention: These institutions identify potential problems and solutions even before students enter college including efforts to improve students readiness for college-level academic work, summer bridge programs that help students make the transition from high school to college, and intensive developmental studies programs to help students improve reading, writing and math skills in order to meet minimum admission standards. First-Year Experience (FYE) programs, along with learning communities, early alerts and effective follow-up services for struggling students that work well. Degree maps that clarify normal routes toward graduation are an important guide and help to increase student success. Several institutions employ academic check-ups that often lead to intervention by an adviser who can help to correct a student s direction before it is too late. The common characteristic of all such initiatives: proactive, preventive actions that rescue students from potential failure. Collaboration: Student retention and timely degree completion are everyone s responsibility and are promoted through effective collaboration among individuals and departments. All of the institutions visited by SREB generally demonstrate effective collaboration from the top of the organizational structure to the bottom: People at many levels support one another and accept the premise that student success is part of their jobs. 11

16 Student involvement: The institutions in this report encourage and support many forms of student involvement in campus life, providing good role models and increasing students engagement and commitment to the institution. Whether as orientation volunteers, peer mentors and tutors, Supplemental Instruction assistants, resident advisers, research assistants or in some other capacity, students who are involved can help bolster student success. Faculty influence: A caring faculty was cited consistently in interviews as a primary reason for student success. The institutions in this report involve the faculty in their campaigns for better student retention and timely degree completion. The institutions consistently and persistently communicate their expectations for faculty participation in advisement and student initiatives and recognize faculty members contributions to student success. Personal support: Campus interviews identified personal support as a primary reason for institutions relative success in degree completion. Faculty, professional and non-professional staff, students, alumni and others are willing and able to assist students. This builds student engagement, and every institution aspiring to improve degree completion should make these types of support a major priority although they may be more cultural than set in policy. SREB found that seasoned college employees often work with new faculty and staff to pass on the institutional history, stories, legends, beliefs, values, attitudes, standards of behavior and other elements that create a culture of student success. Personal support for students is central to a graduation-oriented campus environment. Recommendations SREB developed the following recommendations for institutional and system leaders as well as state policymakers to consider as they work to improve student success in colleges and universities. The recommendations are based on campus interviews, research in the field, and SREB s experience in higher education policy and practice. 1. Graduating all students should be the first priority of faculty and staff and central to the campus culture and all institutional practices at every four-year institution. The goal for all students should be degree completion, and many campus-wide and student-focused efforts should be directed toward that goal. All institutions should establish a graduation-oriented culture and work to ensure that institutional operations and services focus on helping students to continue learning and graduate. The strategies and approaches in this report can help institutions better understand how to evaluate their current programs and move toward making student success the central function and a key strategic goal. Many colleges and universities already offer some of these programs and services, but low retention and graduation rates show that much work remains in providing students with greater opportunities to complete degrees. 2. The selection, performance evaluation and accountability of all campus administrators especially the president and top-level academic administrators should emphasize a commitment to and the effective pursuit of students degree completion. When institutions and systems prepare to hire a president and other senior administrators, the search criteria should include measures that identify candidates who make student retention and degree completion a central focus. College leaders must build and sustain messages that student success is the institution s most important goal. This is particularly important in institutions that serve considerable proportions of academically and economically challenged students. Student success also should be a main factor in how presidents and other leaders are evaluated and compensated, including specific performance measures that demonstrate gains in various measures of student success. 12

17 3. Colleges and universities should charge a team of campus leaders with overseeing efforts to improve student success. A formal, high-profile, institution-wide committee appointed by the president to coordinate student success initiatives sends a powerful message to the institution and the community that graduation is important. This cross-institutional, collaborative group can help focus institutional energy and resources; communicate a common message to faculty, staff, and students that underscores their important roles; and reinforce to students that their success is an institutional priority. Student at Northwest Missouri State University 4. Institutions should ensure that students have college-ready learning skills in reading, writing and math and should provide them with additional instruction when needed. Reading skills are fundamental to student learning in all fields. Few students who lack basic preparation for college will complete degrees. Thus, students capacity to read with comprehension and their ability to write clearly about various texts are critical to college success. Because many states do not have clearly identifiable collegereadiness standards with performance levels that students need to meet to begin college, institutions must provide students with additional instruction in reading comprehension strategies in key academic subjects. Colleges need to actively support statewide college-readiness initiatives, through which greater numbers of high school students will gain the reading, writing and math skills needed for higher learning. 5. Institutions should ensure that all students choose a major and develop an individual graduation plan by the end of the freshman year. Students need specific goals for completing a degree and a clear path to follow. They can find greater focus and direction in completing a degree by choosing a major earlier, even if they change it later. An individualized degree map should outline each course they need toward a degree. 6. Institutions should provide appropriate and targeted programs and services that foster degree completion. Traditional services such as orientation and counseling should be enhanced to complement additional practices such as learning communities, intrusive advising and Supplemental Instruction/tutoring especially for students who need help with study skills, time management and personal issues. 7. Institutions should closely monitor all students progress on their individual graduation plans. Degreeaudit technology can help institutions cost-effectively monitor students course-taking and link it to their schedules and graduation plans. Students who fall behind need to be identified and promptly provided with counseling. Better guidance can restrict students chances for failure. Interventions for students may involve changing their majors or adjusting their graduation plans or schedules. 8. Institutions should develop an institutional master course schedule that covers at least three years. Using the accumulation of all of the individual student graduation plans, this practice can help ensure that students can access courses when they need them. 13

18 Methodology SREB has committed to engaging states and institutions in efforts to increase student retention and college completion. This report adds to policy-makers and institutional leaders understanding of how purposeful and targeted institutional actions can successfully increase baccalaureate completion rates, especially among students who enter college with academic and/or economic disadvantages. The general framework and concepts for the study that underpin this report were developed in fall 2008 by Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) President Dave Spence and SREB Vice President for Special Projects Cheryl Blanco. Paul Bradley, a consultant and the president of The Bradley Group Inc., and Blanco researched and wrote the report. The study was conducted in three phases: Discovery, Institutional Reviews and Analysis. In the Discovery phase, the team set institutional selection criteria, identified target colleges and established the interview protocol. The study team used the College Results Online database developed by The Education Trust ( to select colleges and universities that met the selection criteria: Average six-year graduation rate of at least 45 percent from 2002 to 2006 Median SAT score no higher than 1050 (ACT average of approximately 25) Proportion of students receiving Pell Grants in 2006 of at least 25 percent Carnegie Classification as a public baccalaureate or master s institution The College Results Online database relies on information collected and reported in the Graduation Rate Survey (GRS) by the U.S. Department of Education s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Data for the GRS are submitted by individual postsecondary education institutions. GRS graduation rates are based on the percentage of first-time, full-time, bachelor s or equivalent degree-seeking freshmen who earn a bachelor s or equivalent degree from the institution where they originally enrolled. Undergraduates who begin as part-time or non-bachelor s degree-seeking students, or who transfer into the institution from elsewhere in higher education, are not included in the GRS cohort. When SREB initiated this study, the six cohorts of GRS data in the College Results Online database included the entering freshman classes of Students who began in fall 2001 are considered to have successfully completed their degree within six years if they earned the degree on or before August 31, Using the study criteria, SREB selected the following 15 institutions for this report: California: California State University, Long Beach California: California State University, Stanislaus Illinois: Western Illinois University Kentucky: Murray State University Kentucky: Western Kentucky University Mississippi: Delta State University Missouri: Northwest Missouri State University Nebraska: Wayne State College 14

19 New Jersey: Montclair State University New York: Queens College, The City University of New York New York: The College of Staten Island, The City University of New York North Carolina: Elizabeth City State University North Carolina: North Carolina Central University Pennsylvania: Clarion University of Pennsylvania Texas: Sam Houston State University A review of each institution s Web site enabled the team to develop a basic profile of each institution and research the initiatives that might contribute to degree completion. Identification of the target institutions marked the transition to the second phase, Institutional Reviews. A letter from the SREB president was sent to presidents of the 15 institutions to request campus visits and interviews with key individuals. The site visits were completed from February to May 2009 and provided an opportunity to verify information from the College Results Online search and determine the institutional strategies that contributed most significantly to student retention and graduation. The final phase, Analysis, included a review of documents, interview materials and additional telephone conversations as needed. Draft institutional profiles were prepared, and the president of each institution was invited to review the profile for accuracy before the report went to press. 15

20 California State University, Long Beach For visitors to the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) campus, there is little doubt that degree completion is a primary goal. Banners hanging from lampposts announce Graduation Begins Today, and this theme is even repeated on the dining room napkins. With nearly 38,000 students in the academic year, CSULB is a large institution that increased its six-year graduation rate by more than 20 percent from 2002 to In 2007, the rate jumped an additional 7 points to 54 percent, completely blowing by our goal of 50 percent and almost reaching our 2010 goal, one interviewee said. And we accomplished this with the same high percentage of Pell [Grant] recipients and a majority of first-year students entering [who are] deficient in CSU standards for math and English. Presidents act as champions At CSULB, two champions for degree completion were named over and over: Former President Robert Maxson spent 11 years at the school and is credited with making the public want and value the degree to want to come and to stay, one person said. He emphasized student success, branded us and brought us to a place where seven of our top 10 competitors now are UCs (i.e., University of California institutions, such as UCLA and Berkeley). When Maxson retired, King Alexander took over as the president under the motto Graduation Begins Today and he repeats it often. As another person said, With his energetic style, he reinforces the mantra of student success all day, every day. But senior-level champions alone have not brought CSULB to where it is today. Decentralization is another important factor behind the institution s success. The university is absurdly decentralized, one interviewee said. No one can make anything happen institution-wide without the willing collaboration of many, many people and that is the culture we now have. But this does not stop people from quietly introducing what generally start out as small innovations, with their main motivation being a personal commitment to the goal of [students degree] completion. Several of these innovations now are among the multiple on-campus initiatives that contribute to student success. Among these actions, the Office of Academic Advisement features three mandatory advisement sessions for all incoming freshmen, moving progressively from discussions on registration to selection of majors. Transfer students have two mandatory sessions. As a result, the proportion of firstyear students on academic probation has dropped from one-third to only 10 percent. Those students who remain on probation get help, too. The Strategies for Academic Support program provides students with one-on-one guidance and helps them with college survival skills. Remarkably, many students who go on probation make it to graduation, and 14 percent of all graduates in a recent class were on probation at one time. Other programs to boost student success have proven effective. For example, an administrator in Academic Advisement contacted students who had left just short of graduation and invited them back to explore options for degree completion. Most showed up, most are now graduates, and Graduation Green Light now is a formal initiative at CSULB, with more than 500 graduates to its credit. And it spawned another thought: Why wait so long? Now, the record of every junior is reviewed, and those off-track are urged to come in for individual counseling as part of the Destination Graduation program. To date, more than 2,000 students have received help, many have 16

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